Entries with the tag: kris letang

Through the first two games of the season, this seems to be the problem for the New York Rangers.

After losing to the Boston Bruins last night at the TD Garden by a score of 3-1, the Blueshirts were once again a step behind, this time tonight against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Madison Square Garden. The Blueshirts lost their second straight game to go 0-2 after losing by a score of 6-3.

Once Rangers' captain Ryan Callahan tied the score up at 1-1 with a power play goal in the first period, things seemed to fall apart for the Blueshirts. They allowed two more goals in the first period to go down 3-1 and then at one point in the third period, the team was down 5-1 before Taylor Pyatt put one in for the Rangers to make it 5-2.

Meanwhile, for the second straight game, the Penguins got the offense they needed to win a hockey game. The team got goals from James Neal (2), Tyler Kennedy, Matt Niskanen, Pascal Dupuis and Kris Letang while getting good enough goaltending from Tomas Vokoun (30 saves on 33 shots).

This is the attitude that the New York Rangers should have going into tonight’s tilt with the Pittsburgh Penguins at Madison Square Garden.

The Penguins may be without Sidney Crosby and some of their other better players but they have definitely picked-up their play in the last few games. Guys like Evgeni Malkin, who should be considered the Penguins’ most valuable player right now, and James Neal are doing everything they possibly can to keep their club afloat while Crosby is still recovering.

Furthermore, defenseman Kris Letang will be making his return to the Penguins’ line-up tonight. This will give the Penguins some added firepower and as well as a lethal threat on the power play.

Like team head coach John Tortorella said two nights ago, the club should not be thinking about the Stanley Cup right now. This Blueshirts’ hockey club has a long way to go and needs to take things on a game-by-game basis, something that has worked well for them so far this season.

The scoreboard may have read 3-1 at the sound of the Madison Square Garden buzzer but this was a game in which the New York Rangers could have beaten the Pittsburgh Penguins, who won their seventh straight game last night.

They had a several-minute lapse in the second period that really cost them the game as the Penguins scored two quick goals off the sticks of defenseman Kris Letang and forward Chris Connor. Other than that lapse, however, it was a solid game for the Blueshirts.

Now, I know that you folks probably want me to mention the Sidney Crosby “slue-foot” or however you spell it, but I am not going to talk about that here. It is what it is and it does not even matter as the Rangers probably would have lost with or without it.

What I will talk about is the Rangers missing the net. The team had several scoring chances in the third period and they just could not hit the net for one reason or another. Blueshirts’ forward Alex Frolov is a player that sticks out in my mind when it comes to this as is defenseman Michael Del Zotto, who has a great shot but has trouble finding the net with it.

Good evening folks. For your reading pleasure, please check out the interview I did with Seth Rorabaugh, the Post-Gazette’sPittsburgh Penguins blogger.

Seth was kind of enough to take time out of his hectic schedule to tell us about how he got into hockey, how he got his start as a hockey journalist, his thoughts of the future of hockey blogs and his prediction on who this year’s Stanley Cup Finals representatives will be.